Pioneer VSX-D811S AV-receiver

The flap cover, passed on to Pioneer VSX-D811S receiver from older brothers, hides most controls and a full AV input (including connectors for optical digital signal and S-Video), so the front panel does not look overloaded - rather the contrary. But this is the facade. Six-channel amplifier is behind it. The sixth channel can sound back central speaker systems or a passive subwoofer. The information for rear center is provided in the "right" way even from DTS ES Discrete signal, i.e. here is full compatibility with 6.1-channel formats. It is better to do presetting from the remote control, because some operations (for example, recording a radio station into memory) are not available from the front panel. The remote control is programmable with the function of learning and quite ergonomic (only the volume control is not in the best place). The installation itself is very logical and the access to volume control of each channel - direct from remote - facilitates fine setting. And this is important as even with a small imbalance a sound pattern may be deformed. Pioneer VSX-D811S receiver proved itself to be good, especially at the playing of soundtracks for movies. Hence, the definite conclusion is that this is a purely theatrical device despite of the presence of a 5.1-input. The gain characteristics are not quite symmetrical, so you can connect a DVD-Audio or SACD player to the receiver, but it will be very difficult to properly configure such a system.